What Walter Saw
by longstoryshort
Summary: Walter's family name changed from Davis to Harriman. What's that all about? Complete.


_**Apparently** they only belong to me in my head. Otherwise they belong to Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions and Gekko Productions. I do this for fun but what fun it is!_

_Personally I think the reason we are seeing so much more of Gary Jones in the show is that he's so damned funny, but I guess there has to be a Stargateland reason for it so here's how I think they could explain it…_

**What Walter Saw**

"We're receiving a communication sir, it's the Tok'ra" Walter turned to see the General and three members of SG-1 walking toward him.

"Patch it through son" Walter fiddled with the controls and soon the booming voice of a Tok'ra operative came through the control room speakers.

"This is Jollen of the Tok'ra, to whom am I speaking?"

"I am General Hammond. Major Carter, Jonas Quinn and Teal'c are also here."

Walter rolled his eyes, unseen by the General who was behind him. 'And me! What about little ol' me?' He thought to himself. He really shouldn't be surprised. Nobody around here really noticed him at all. He was just the gate tech guy, good old Walter, part of the furniture, except that most people around the SGC wouldn't even remember the Walter part. They would fall back on the good old reliable "Sergeant" whenever they had to address him as anything other than "Hey you"

Most of the time Walter valued his anonymity. He saw a bunch of stuff that if people paid any notice to him he wouldn't have seen. Siler couldn't understand why Walter always cleaned up on the betting pools. Siler didn't realise that being notorious made people notice and when people noticed you they guarded their behaviour and their speech. Whenever the SGC personnel saw Siler, they were waiting for the accident to happen and they watched him always.

There were some things that Walter saw that he would never share with anyone. Like the fact that he was one of the few people on the base that knew where Colonel O'Neill's office was. Not only knew where it was but also knew that the Colonel was a frequent visitor to his own office, something he didn't think anyone else would believe. After a few misunderstandings, General Hammond had ordered Walter to hand deliver all of O'Neill's memos. When Walter had entered the office the first time to deliver one, he wasn't surprised to find O'Neill kicked back in his chair with his boots firmly planted on the desk. What did surprise Walter was the fact that the item that the Colonel was reverently clutching was not a game boy, but the collected works of John Donne, and judging by the dreaming expression on the Colonels face, he was totally drunk on words. He uttered a soft and distracted thanks as Walter put the memo in his in tray and waved a hand in dismissal without even looking up to see who had entered the room.

There was the day that Doctor Jackson had failed to show up for a meeting and Walter was sent to find him. He eventually tracked the archaeologist down in his temp quarters and found Daniel fast asleep snuggled up to a well-worn teddy bear.

Running gate simulations overnight on the control room computer with Major Carter. While they were waiting for the simulations to run, the Major pulled a Mills and Boon romance from her pants pocket and read breathlessly. Walter had to call her name three times when the simulation finished before he got her attention.

Walking into the rec room to find Major Griff breaking up a fight between Colonels Peirce and Reynolds while three other officers rolled on the floor laughing, an abandoned pictionary game on the table. Colonel Reynold's strangled cry of "That's not how you draw a freakin' coffee cup!" was the last thing he heard as he fled the room.

Being forced to watch as Teal'c practised his new found obsession with mime.

Rough, tough Colonel Dixon, still in his grimy and bloody battle fatigues hunched over the control room phone as he sang a lullaby to his baby son.

The few times he was in the infirmary, amazed and slightly grossed out by the nurses as they gossiped about everyone and anyone on the base as soon as he was the only one in the room.

General Hammond sitting in his office, picking up the red phone and barking out "This is Hammond, get me the President!" Then hanging up and giggling. Then doing it again. And again.

The normally indefatigable Doctor Fraiser, asleep at her desk with Cassandra's photo clutched in her hand after a marathon session dealing with the aftermath of another mission gone wrong.

These were the moments he treasured and replayed in his mind. They were a panacea to the ignominy of being faceless, nameless and invisible to most of his co-workers. At least until they wanted the iris opened.

Whowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowhowho

Walter's precious anonymity came crashing down around his ears one May day. On entering the control room to start his shift, Lt Simmons informed him that General Hammond wanted to see him immediately. The nervous young man asked in an awe struck voice "What have you done? I don't think I've ever seen him that mad."

Walter didn't even stop to think that he could have done anything wrong. He never did anything wrong. He turned and went quietly up the stairs to the briefing room, conscious of the stares of the control room techs. It was probably just another job that involved being faceless and invisible. It was probably Colonel O'Neill that was in trouble and it was going to be Walter's job to bring him to the General. Again.

As he approached the General's office he saw that Major Davis was in there along with another man in a black suit that just screamed NID. Walter spared a thought for poor O'Neill as he knocked sharply on the door and promptly obeyed the curt "Enter" from Hammond.

The General leaned back in his chair with a smug smile and beckoned for Walter to come right into the room. He indicated to the man in black. "Son, this is Agent Barrett of the NID. He is here to investigate an alleged security breach on the base, which I'm sure we can clear up for him right here and now. I'd like for you to tell us your name." Hammond shot the angry looking NID agent a triumphant look.

Walter felt his world tilt slightly on it's axis. He had a sudden niggling fear that he really was the centre of this particular bruhaha and he had a pretty fair idea of what he problem was. He stood tall. He was a career airforce man, and he may not go into battle like the SG teams but he could be brave when he needed to be.

"My name is Sergeant Walter Harriman, sir."

"See Agent Barr…. What?" Hammond's head snapped round so fast, Walter though he was going to fall off his chair. Davis was out of his chair and starting to shout even as the General was speaking. Agent Barrett just looked confused.

Walter decided to stay silent until the yelling stopped. It took a while for both Major Davis and General Hammond to run out of steam but they finally did. The three men waited, as Major Davis' loaded question seemed to hang in the air:

"So why have you been calling yourself Davis all these years?"

Walter took a deep breath. "With all due respect sir, I have never called myself Davis. My ID badge and my dog tags both say Harriman, my personnel records all say Harriman. Every time I have sign my name I sign Harriman."

Agent Barrett looked at him speculatively. "Did you ever change your name?"

"No sir."

Have you ever told any one your name was Davis?"

"No sir"

Major Davis stamped his foot in frustration. "Dammit man, you had Davis printed on your uniform! I saw it – don't you think I wouldn't notice someone with the same name as me?"

Walter stared at the carpet miserably. He really wished he were still a faceless nameless invisible nobody. He really wished he had a buddy who was a little grey alien who had a bad habit of beaming people out of the SGC.

Agent Barrett smiled sweetly. "So, Sergeant. Care to tell us why everyone here seems to think you name is Davis?"

Walter directed his answer to the General; after all it was him he owed the explanation to. "It was Colonel O'Neill, sir. He started calling me Davis. I tried to correct him a few times, but you know what he's like with names. After a while it just seemed easier to go with it. Next thing I knew a whole bunch of people were calling me Sergeant Davis but to be honest with you sir, I thought they were just pulling my leg. Then my new BDU's arrived and they had Davis written on them. I tried to take them back, but that guy that runs the clothing store is a really mean marine. I only tried once and then decided it was probably better for my health to just wear what he gave me. I'm really sorry sir, I never realised that everyone actually thought my name was Davis."

There was an embarrassed silence from the two airforce officers and an astonished one from Agent Barrett. The NID agent was the first to find his voice. "You mean you have been working here for over 6 years, and no one at this base knows your name?" He swung round to face Hammond. "Say what you like about the NID General, I don't think we would ever face this situation in our organisation. I don't think you have a security breach at the base. It seems to be a massive breakdown in interpersonal communication. If you will excuse me, I'll go and verify a few facts in the records section and then I'll be on my way back to Washington. He stood up. "Good bye General, Major, Sergeant **_Harriman_**."

Hammond's face went an even deeper shade of purple at the emphasis Agent Barrett put on Walter's name. He was appalled and embarrassed that a member of his command could have been put in such a position. Especially given how the "security breach" had been discovered.

"Son, I don't know what to say. I'm truly embarrassed by this. I had hoped to have you in here today to tell you that the official commendation I had put you up for had been approved. Obviously I will resubmit it with your proper name, however that won't stop me feeling foolish."

Walter wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. He had always hoped that the General appreciated him and the work he did but to find out that he was just as nameless to the man he admired above all others was galling. He stammered out a few words of acknowledgement and then requested permission to return to his duty station. The General seemed glad for him to leave.

Oooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooopsoooops

Things changed after that. Everyone noticed him. Everyone started to call him Walter – he guessed that to call him Harriman would be admitting that they'd got it wrong all those years. He got to do really cool stuff, like going off world. Walter thought that giving him a bigger role was General Hammond's way of apologising. He became notorious and he didn't think that was always so great. No more cleaning up on the betting pools. Eventually Walter decided that maybe all the "really cool stuff" wasn't always so much fun. Like being on Prometheus with General Hammond while Anubis tried to annhilate everyone, including the Prometheus; or seeming to always be on duty whenever that damn base self-destruct was activated; or somehow finding himself a sort of personal aide-de-camp to the most reluctant General in the Air Force.

So the faceless, nameless, invisible gate tech became the ubiquitous Walter. Indispensable, reliable, always there Walter and everyone always stuck with Walter or Sergeant. Walter was a happy man until the day he heard Lt Simmons breaking in a new recruit…

"And Banningham, the funny looking tech sergeant with the glasses? Just call him Walter or Sergeant. No one can remember if his name is Davis or Harriman and we're all too embarrassed to ask…."

_I borrowed the image of being drunk on the words of John Donne from Dorothy L Sayers – if you're a fan can you pick which book?_


End file.
